Might could, as in "You might could buy that down at the Winn Dixie"Usta could, as in "You usta could buy that down at the Winn Dixie, but not ennymore.Everhoo, as in "Everhoo wants to go to town, git in the truck!"

palladiate:Someone fails at linguistic history. There's a reason why so many folks put an r at the end of sherbet. It's the same reason if you're out in the sticks you'll hear someone say "warsh." It's called an "intrusive r" and is common in most rhotic dialects of English. It's a peculiarity of r-pronunciation, and not unique to English, but all languages that feature an analog of the English R.

I'd also like to note that awry comes from "a wrien," comparable to "aglee" in Scottish brogue. I might mention that aglee is indeed pronounced the "wrong" way. It's called a vowel shift, something that some folks out there didn't really get to participate in. They're not so much "wrong" as somewhere they fell off the linguistic bus.

And, finally, fark you for being a prescriptivist. English changes faster than you can write down your silly rules. Write and speak to your audience, don't write and speak to a handful of mostly dead men's grammatical peeves. English is the most mutable language in recorded history, and some of us would like to keep it that way.

Why? For Americans every consonant's name is the sound it makes elongated with a vowel sound. But for Canadians and Brits it's every consonant save for Z. [All but W in both cases as its name is a functional description rather than its sound] Why end the name of only that one consonant with another consonant? How does that makes any sense?

DeeGeePeeTeeZed

One of these things is not like the other.

Funny how you left off "Cee".

Because that's the problem. "Cee" and "Zee" are hard to tell apart. This is why on military and ham radio, even Americans say "Zed".

Anyway, it's all because of that twerp Webster. The letter comes from "Zeta", in Greek, and in just about every benighted language on the planet based on Latin or Greek, that letters sounds like "Zed" or something like it. Seriously. Not just in England: French, German, Swedish, Italian, you name it.

Back in the 1700s when the US felt like it had tiny balls, Noah Webster decided to mess up a whole lot of things in language just for the sake of the USA being different, and one of the changes was "zee" instead of "zed" just to "be consistent" without considering the history of the alphabet and usability. And ever since then, US folks have struggled over the phone with "C" and "Z", while radio people along with the rest of the whole freaking planet stick with "Zed" and think yanks are loonies.

Maybe depending on your particular dialect and/or region? I've never had a problem with that or overheard anyone having a problem with that. I've lived in 3 different states, too. Arizona, Illinois, and Indiana. Between the SouthWest melting pot, MidWest melting pot, and northern Kentucky I've heard plenty of different speaking styles.

This is why on military and ham radio, even Americans say "Zed".

Um, no. We say Zulu. Anyway, military applications aren't relevant to this discussion. This is about what makes sense. Military communication is all about being as clear as possible. Things get changed from their natural state to add clarity. WTF becomes Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, for example. So, if you're saying that "zed" is other than the natural state of being, as with the rest of single letter communication, then I'd agree. Farking it up does make it more distinct when using static laden radios in combat situations. In everyday life there's no reason for it. But, yeah. Zulu.

Anyway, it's all because of that twerp Webster. The letter comes from "Zeta", in Greek, and in just about every benighted language on the planet based on Latin or Greek, that letters sounds like "Zed" or something like it. Seriously. Not just in England: French, German, Swedish, Italian, you name it.

Back in the 1700s when the US felt like it had tiny balls, Noah Webster decided to mess up a whole lot of things in language just for the sake of the USA being different, and one of the changes was "zee" instead of "zed" just to "be consistent" without considering the history of the alphabet and usability. And ever since then, US folks have struggled over the phone with "C" and "Z", while radio people along with the rest of the whole freaking planet stick with "Zed" and think yanks are loonies.

English is a royal clusterfark of a language. So what, exactly, is wrong with opting for a little bit of consistency? Consider the history? "Because it's always been that way" is not a valid reason for anything. If there's room for improvement, then improve. Stagnating anything for the sake of tradition is really farking asinine. And it's perfectly usable in Engish as Zee so I have no idea what you part was about.

And again, no, we don't struggle over C vs Z. At least not between people who don't fark up the language with hick dialects and whatnot. People like that aren't intelligible in general (and pretty much everywhere has their version of this) and thus don't count toward this discussion.

Why do you keep going back to ham radio? Have you ever heard ham radio? It's not exactly wrought with clarity. So yeah, I can understand intentionally farking up pronunciation in order to make yourself understandable through the static and noise. But when face to face and with modern technology it's not necessary.

You speak as if you have a personal stake in this. So forgive me if I take everything you say with a grain of salt as you seem to be biased.

CtrlAltDestroy:Anyway, it's all because of that twerp Webster. The letter comes from "Zeta", in Greek, and in just about every benighted language on the planet based on Latin or Greek, that letters sounds like "Zed" or something like it. Seriously. Not just in England: French, German, Swedish, Italian, you name it.

Mike Chewbacca:Sofa King Smart: the thing that toasts my giblets is the past tense of 'to see'...

I don't know how or why but the word 'seen' gets used a lot in my part of the country and it's like nails on a chalkboard to me.. ex: I seen where Joe went an got him a new truck. Hey, I seen your sister down at the girlie club last weekend...

That almost drives me to violence.

What, because she had to get a job there, or because she is letting the good stuff be seen outside the family?

CluelessMoron:Yes you did leave off something. The letter "Cee" in your original list.

"Left off" implies intention. I had no such intention. I "left off" 21 other letters, too. I kept it short enough to be palatable while long enough to get the point across. I didn't need the entire alphabet. Brevity is the soul of wit, after all.

And that's why Americans say "Zulu" or "Zebra" or (yikes) "Zed" when it matters.

Whatever.

So you're just going to ignore that fact that we substitute something for EVERY SINGLE LETTER for when it matters and that it's not unique to Z? I hope not. Because doing that would be really foolish.

antidumbass:Even here in Ohio, seemingly no TV reporter can pronounce 'February'. Listen to the 1st minute of Don McLean's "American Pie" where he nails it correctly. (Hint: two Rs)./yeah, I'm a Pisces

No, no he doesn't nail it. I hear him say the very common, "feb-yoo-ary" instead of the correct "feb-roo-ary". I'm the only person I know who pronounces it the correct way. "Wensdays" in Febyooary" are the worst days ever.